Debussy: La Mer, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Simon Rattle

Hot on the heels of their excellent recording of Dvořák Tone Poems comes this equally fine disc of Debussy from Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, recorded live at the Philharmonie in September 2004. Mallarmé’s poem L’après-midi d’un faune inspired Debussy initially to conceive an orchestral work in three parts. Abandoning that idea at a fairly early stage, he decided instead on a single-movement Prélude which he described as corresponding to “the successive scenes in which the longings and desires of the faun pass in the heat of the afternoon”, writing later that it was “what remained of the dream in the recesses of the faun’s flute”. This new EMI recording captures the hazy, almost standstill afternoon somnolence to perfection; at 10’15” it is one of the more relaxed performances on disc (Boulez zips through it in 8’52”), but with a solo flautist of the calibre of Emmanuel Pahud, Rattle can afford to take his time.

Of La Mer, a number of Debussy’s friends and critics claimed that they only understood it when it was conducted by Debussy himself in 1908. I’m pretty certain they would have understood Rattle’s performance; it’s a model of fluctuating tempi, mood and textures, with no sharp angles or contrived-sounding rubato. The shifting restlessness of the ocean is ever-present in this reading. Solos emerge from the overall sound and re-submerge, yet throughout there is a clarity and precision of execution similar to Abbado’s DG performance; overall, however, Rattle’s players achieve a more cohesive, blended sound than Abbado’s Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and the disc benefits from the orchestra’s more distant positioning. The outbreak of war in 1914 meant that Debussy only orchestrated a few pages of his piano score for the ballet La Boîte à joujoux. Fortunately his friend André Caplet completed the orchestration in 1919, and the Berliners give an affectionate and exquisitely-characterised rendition of this delightful set of tableaux. New transcriptions by Colin Matthews of three Préludes round off the disc. (The Hallé has commissioned Matthews to orchestrate all twenty-four.) While sounding quite different from their piano counterparts, they are very effective; Feux d’artifice in particular captures the essence of Debussy’s sound-world, as indeed does the entire disc.